After a slow start, Stiles has formed a pair of committees that, combined, now number 45 members. The groups include a cross section of civic leaders, activists and average citizens, and they may be showing up at a community meeting near you.

"There is a broad base of support from across the entire county to change government," Stiles said. "They believe that a system with checks and balances as envisioned by our forefathers will work in this county."

Sure, there are some past political candidates, some who have enjoyed success, some who didn't and others who had abbreviated careers. And many of the committee members can be described as friends of Mary Ann Stiles'.

It's not an A-list of Hillsborough County power brokers. But it's not a group that can be easily dismissed any longer either.

There are diehard Republicans, yellow-dog Democrats and a few independents backing the proposal to create an elected, nonpartisan county mayor. There are lawyers and marketing people, bankers and doctors, hailing from Lutz, Brandon and Hyde Park.

Tampa City Council member Charlie Miranda has signed on. He was joined this week by council colleague Gwen Miller and her husband, former state Sen. Les Miller.

Stiles has them singing from the same hymnal.

"I think that the time has come for our county government to take a different shape and form, and start to work like our state and federal government, where you have a check-and-balance system, with executive and legislative branches," Les Miller said.

Stiles initiated the effort more than two years ago but failed to collect enough petition signatures to get the issue on the 2006 ballot. She secured the necessary number for this November's election.

She got started in protest, angered by commission meddling with the county's bus agency, for which she served as a lobbyist. But her group has been largely dormant since its petition drive, until Stiles named members of the executive and steering committees in recent weeks.

Committee members reached by the Times voiced a shared desire to have an elected county mayor charting a course for Hillsborough's future on major issues, such as transportation. They emphasized their desire for creating checks and balances with an elected mayor, rather than an administrator appointed by commissioners.

"Hillsborough County is run by a committee," said lawyer Andy Graham. "No one has ever built a statue to a committee. The system is dysfunction. It gives great power to the administrator, who is unelected and unaccountable to the people."

Several made comparisons to the state and federal government, saying what's good for them should be good for the county.

"If people believe running the county with a committee works, they should be for dispensing with the position of governor and letting the legislature run everything," said David Hurley, president of Landmark Engineering & Surveying Corp. "That gives me the full body shivers."

Most of the members reached said they are active raising money for the campaign. They're also taking their argument to any group that will grant them an audience.